Apocalypse now

Our God is very economical in His dealings with us. He never arrives too early or too late. He never provides too little or too much. He harmonizes all that He creates to function symphonically, synergically. Everything, as He creates it, He declares good. He makes nothing without the Son and the Holy Spirit, thus revealing Himself to rational beings through Them, as the Father, and together with Them, as Holy One and Unearthly Triad.

He has taken from us words that He spoke by His holy prophets, proved by the history of His holy nation, sent out by the writings of His holy apostles, and sealed by the testimony of His holy martyrs, transforming them by the human and divine nature of His Son the Word, and given them back to us as the only divine scriptures on earth, the Bible. There it is, a Book transfigured into a Door.

Open it and you meet not just human words, but the Word. Entering with bowed head and bended knees, we are made to stand upright again with heads held high and straightened backs, renewed in the Father’s image, the God-man Jesus Christ, as we find Paradise as Him, and find ourselves in Paradise.

Yet our God is very economical. He knows what we are made of, because He makes us. He knows our nature from within, having become One of us. From the first-created Adam to the last-born Adam, He knows us all in our billions. The Book that He has given to us is written in words drawn from us. It speaks of things He wants to tell us in our own human language, precisely so that we can understand them.

The book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, is a book that the Church has almost avoided since the beginning, because it contains so much of a mysterious nature that it can easily be misunderstood. At one extreme, the Orthodox Church never reads it in the context of services, and at the other extreme are the many personality cults that are practically erected on the foundation of some man or woman’s interpretations of it.

Let’s listen to what the book of Revelation itself says and, without presuming to interpret the mysterious elements, pay attention to the things it plainly reveals, for they are not few. Approaching the Apocalypse, the phrase that immediately greets me at the door is the word of Jesus Himself, Μη φοβου! “Don’t be afraid” (Revelation 1:17). We can trust Jesus here just as we trust His words in every other book of the Bible.

Many people even forget that it is Christ who is speaking to John and revealing these things, but if you have a red letter edition of the Bible you’ll see that there’s a lot of red printed in the book of Revelation. Like the rock that followed Israel in its migrations and gave them water to drink wherever they went, the Apocalypse has been following the Church in its earthly pilgrimage and follows us still.
Are we drinking from its living water?

For us and for every generation it is the Apocalypse now, and time itself has been carrying within it the seed of its own destruction, as the Day of the Lord draws closer to us. There never was a time not to do as the book of Revelation prescribes, “Read the prophecy aloud, listen to it, and keep what it says.” Why? Because John, the servant and beloved disciple himself testifies, “it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ,” and “because the time is close” (Revelation 1:2-3).

The book of Revelation contains things both hidden and plain. It is our privilege to have this prophecy and our blessing to do what it says. Even in the first three verses comprising the Prologue, we find the truth both hidden and plain.

Hidden? When John writes “about the things which are now to take place very soon.”

Plain? When he writes, “John has written down everything he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ. Happy the man who reads this prophecy aloud, and happy those who listen to him, if they keep all that it says, because the Time is close.”

The hidden? The meaning and significance of the apocalyptic visions, when they are to take place, or whether they already have, and how, and where; the meaning of “now” and of “very soon.” Notice that these are exactly the things which have caused divisions, provoked and supported pride, and given occasion to scandals and crimes among the believers, allowing the planting of bad seed among the good. Christ says plainly to us in the gospels, “No man knows the day or the hour.” Believing and obeying His word, we are saved from the despoliation of the hidden, wherever in the Bible we find it.

The plain? What is written as having factually occurred, “John has written down everything he saw.” What we can trust on the word of an eyewitness and disciple of Jesus, “he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ.” What will be the result for us if we follow the instructions in faith and obediently, “Happy the man who reads this prophecy aloud, and happy those who listen to him, if they keep all that it says.” Why we should have faith and obey, “for the Time is close.” Notice that the Lord never tells us too little or too much.

Brethren, I encourage you always and ever, to read the Apocalypse now because it is like a fifth gospel, the final seal of the good news, which began in the preaching of John the Baptist, was accomplished in the sacrificial and life-giving death of our Lord on the tree, and which is “now” about to be perfected in us and in our world. Be like the humble and wise, who receive with joy and obedience the clear words of their Master and await with patience for the revelation of all that He will accomplish at His glorious coming, the parousía.

Remember what the Book plainly states, “The One who guarantees these revelations repeats His promise: I shall indeed be with you soon,” and by our faith and obedience to His word, let us say with the saints, “Amen; come Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)

Your true worth

How much good we miss that is handed down in other cultures around us! Today I went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch and while there picked up a Spanish language magazine and began reading it. There I found a short tale written by the Argentine author Jorge Bucay. I liked it so much because it reminded me of you, and so I want to tell it to you, son. I will translate it for you, but also leave the original text for others who can read Spanish.
“Talk boldly when you gotta speak, my son. Walk slowly like you don’t know how to run…”

El anillo / The Ring

por / by Jorge Bucay

“Vengo, maestro, porque me siento tan poca cosa que no tengo fuerzas para hacer nada. Me dicen que no sirvo, que no hago nada bien, que soy torpe y bastante tonto. ¿Cómo puedo mejorar? ¿Qué puedo hacer para que me valoren más?”
“I come, teacher, because I feel so small that I have no strength to do anything. They tell me I’m good for nothing, that I don’t do anything right, that I'm clumsy and rather silly. How can I improve myself? What I can do that will make them think well of me?”

El maestro sin mirarlo, le dijo: Cuanto lo siento muchacho, no puedo ayudarte, debo resolver primero mi propio problema. Quizás después. Y haciendo una pausa agregó: Si quisieras ayudarme tú a mí, yo podría resolver este problema con más rapidez y después tal vez te pueda ayudar.
The teacher, without looking up, replied, “I'm sorry boy, but I can’t help you. I have to solve my own problem first. Maybe later.” But after a pause, he added, “If you would like to help me, I could solve this problem faster, and then maybe I can help you.”

Encantado, maestro titubeó el joven, pero sintió que otra vez era desvalorizado, y sus necesidades postergadas.
Though delighted, the youth stammered to the teacher, feeling worthless as usual, his needs again subordinated.

Bien asintió el maestro. Se quitó un anillo que llevaba en el dedo pequeño y dándoselo al muchacho, agregó: toma el caballo que está allá afuera y cabalga hasta el mercado. Debo vender este anillo porque tengo que pagar una deuda. Es necesario que obtengas por él la mayor suma posible, pero no aceptes menos de una moneda de oro. Ve y regresa con esa moneda lo más rápido que puedas.
“Well, then,” agreed the teacher. He took off a ring he was wearing on his little finger and gave it to the boy, saying, “Take the horse out there and ride to the market place. I have to sell this ring to pay a debt. We have to get as much for it as we possibly can, but don’t accept anything less than a gold coin. Go, and come back with the money as quickly as you can.”

El joven tomó el anillo y partió. Apenas llegó empezó a ofrecer el anillo a los mercaderes. Estos lo miraban con algún interés, hasta que el joven decía lo que pretendía por el anillo. Cuando el joven mencionaba la moneda de oro, algunos reían, otros le daban vuelta la cara y sólo un viejito fue tan amable como para tomarse la molestia de explicarle que una moneda de oro era muy valiosa para entregarla a cambio de un anillo. En afán de ayudar, alguien le ofreció una moneda de plata y un cacharro de cobre, pero el joven tenía instrucciones de no aceptar menos de una moneda de oro y rechazó la oferta.
The youth took the ring and left. As soon as he got there, he started offering the ring to the traders. They looked at it with some interest, until the youth said what he wanted for the ring. When the young man mentioned gold, some laughed and others turned away, and only an old man was kind enough to take the trouble to explain that a gold coin was too much to pay for a ring. Eager to help, someone offered him a silver coin and a few coppers, but the youth had been instructed to accept nothing less than a gold coin and rejected the offer.

Después de ofrecer su joya a toda persona que se cruzaba en el mercado, más de cien personas, y abatido por su fracaso, montó su caballo y regresó.
After offering his jewel to every person passing through the market place, over a hundred people, and dejected by his failure, he mounted his horse and rode back.

Cuanto hubiera deseado el joven tener él mismo esa moneda de oro, podría entonces habérsela entregado él mismo al maestro para liberarlo de su preocupación y recibir entonces su consejo y ayuda.
How much the youth wished that he had a gold coin himself that he could give the teacher and release him from his worry, and then receive his advice and help.

Entró en la habitación. Maestro dijo lo siento, no pude conseguir lo que me pediste. Quizás pudiera conseguir dos o tres monedas de plata, pero no creo que yo pueda engañar a nadie respecto del verdadero valor del anillo.
He entered the room and told the teacher, “I'm sorry, I couldn’t get what you asked. Maybe I could’ve gotten two or three silver coins, but I don’t think I could’ve convinced anyone of the true value of the ring.”

Qué importante lo que dijiste, joven amigo contestó sonriente el maestro Debemos saber primero el verdadero valor del anillo. Vuelve a montar y vete al joyero. ¿Quién mejor que él para saberlo? Dile que quisieras vender el anillo y pregunta cuánto te da por él, pero no importa lo que ofrezca, no se lo vendas. Vuelve aquí con mi anillo.
“How important is what you just said, my young friend” responded the teacher, smiling. “We must first find out the true value of the ring. Get yourself together and go to the jeweler. Who better than he to tell us? Tell him you would like to sell the ring, and ask him how much he’d give you for it, but no matter what he offers, don’t sell it. Come back here with my ring.”

El joven volvió a cabalgar. El joyero examinó el anillo a la luz del candil con su lupa, lo pesó y luego le dijo:Dile al maestro, muchacho, que si lo quiere vender ya, no puedo darle más que 58 monedas de oro por su anillo.
The young man rode back. The jeweler examined the ring by lamplight with his magnifying glass, weighed it, and then said, “Tell the teacher, boy, that if he wants to sell it right now, I can’t give him more than 58 gold coins for his ring.

58 MONEDAS !!!!!!!!! Exclamó el joven.
58 COINS !!!!!!!!! cried the youth.

Si, replicó el joyero, yo sé que con tiempo podríamos obtener por él cerca de 70 monedas, pero no sé... si la venta es urgente.
“Yes,” replied the jeweler, “If he had more time, he could probably find a buyer at 70 coins. Otherwise....”

El joven corrió emocionado a la casa del maestro a contarle lo sucedido.
The excited youth hurried back to the teacher’s house to tell him what happened.

Siéntate dijo el maestro después de escucharlo. Tú eres como este anillo: una joya valiosa y única. Y como tal, sólo puede evaluarte verdaderamente un experto. ¿Qué haces por la vida pretendiendo que cualquiera descubra tu verdadero valor?
Y diciendo esto, volvió a ponerse el anillo en el dedo pequeño.
“Sit down,” said the teacher after listening to him. “You are like this ring: a worthy and unique jewel. The only person who can understand your true worth is an expert. Why do you go around expecting that anyone you meet on the street knows your true worth?” So saying, he put the ring back on his little finger.

No turning back…

…and it's over three years since I first wrote the following words. I just thought it might be helpful, to me at least, to read them again, as the Word says, "Keep alive in yourselves what you were taught in the beginning" (1 John 2:24).

Who is this Man?

The discussion of Muslim versus Christian beliefs is irresolvable, because it demands that one side admit that the other is right and then cease to exist, like the meeting of matter and anti-matter.

If there were a real resolution other than mere peaceful co-existence between Islam and the faith of the Bible, I think we would have found it by now, after fourteen centuries. But this is simply not a resolvable issue. To bring up the differences at all is, I think, asking for trouble. One or the other faith is a fabrication. And if there is a place where being wrong is more dangerous than this one, tell me about it.

We can all start out being "nice" to each other, that is, to people of different faiths. We can call our viewpoints "faith traditions" as it is fashionable to do now in the ecumenical movement within Christianity. That's possibly very dangerous, even within Christianity, because we're using humanistic humdrum like "faith traditions" to cover up real differences that can come back and bite us.

But when we're dealing with any belief system that denies that Jesus is the Christ, it's best to just be honest and give our testimony. We can still be friends, and even brothers on the human level, and live in hope of the salvation of those who now deny Christ. But it's just 'soft soap and wishful thinking' and 'boys' philosophy,' as C.S. Lewis says, when we try to make people comfortable with things that should make them very un-comfortable.

If followers of Jesus were more willing to speak the Truth in love instead of abdicating and compromising with the world, maybe even suffering, maybe even dying for their truthful testimony, then maybe at least some of the Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, Baha'is, Buddhists and others would see the suffering of Christ (in our suffering) and turn to Him and be saved.

This is the hard Rock of Truth.
Let's not be wishy-washy and make our home in a sand castle.

I don't go looking for opportunities to offend, as you should know, but if the Lord gives me a word for someone, I try not to hold back.
I spent the first 50-odd years of my life doing that. That's over and done with now, come what may, no turning back.

The bottom line is that it really is love for my brothers that forces me to speak, and not some dogmatic obsession or triumphal attitude. You should know that, if you know me at all from my testimonies.

Our sure destination

Christ is the Master of all of us, and He is the one who keeps us standing in Him, regardless of our condition, knowledge, devotion, lifestyle, opinions, even beliefs.

All beliefs are nothing compared to just standing in the Presence and adoring Him. They were never meant to be anything but placeholders for that experience, and we can stand in the Presence even now, but how much more fully when we finally become alive.

People talk about the saints as if they were dead
and about themselves as if they were alive, but the opposite is true.

Only those who have died are really alive, and that is where Jesus is going as He walks ahead of us, and that is our sure destination too, as long as we keep following Him.

Greater than all

For Christ, Orthodoxy doesn’t exist. There is absolutely nothing that He says or does in the gospels that we can jump on and say we are following Him when we extol the perfections of Orthodoxy as against the defects of other religions, especially other Christianities.
Now I realise what it was that always made me so uncomfortable to be around new converts to Orthodoxy, and why after a couple of years of being one myself, I began to distance myself out from them, and get closer to the cradle believers, who didn’t seem to understand what a great treasure they had in Orthodoxy. I used to think they were that way because they took the faith for granted. It might be that, but I’ve known too many who were merely Christians, willing to help you, console you, witness to you, on the spot and without self-consciousness or fanfare, and then quietly return to what they were doing. Sometimes with their lips they couldn’t belt out a prayer on the spot, but they prayed with their hands and hearts and with the love in their eyes. God answered their unspoken prayer even as they were offering it. “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him” (Matthew 6:8).

What sparked the thoughts I just expressed?

I had been reading an essay by archimandrite Fr Raphael Karelin, titled Differences in the Religious Thinking Between the East and the West. Very well-written, very eloquently written, the author carefully locates the temporal source of what became a growing and finally irreversible divergence between not only ideas but attitudes in the Christian West and East. In the essay I could not find a single appreciation of anything that the Christian West believed, practiced or accomplished, except for some hollow exaltation of Saint Augustine, only to bring him back down to earth by comparing his spiritual feats to the prowess of the Eastern fathers, who were incomparably superior.

There is so much about other Christians that we are unwilling or unable to face. We have defined so rigidly and infallibly our own positions on just about everything, that it isn’t even a matter of disagreement on doctrines or practices—we already know we’re right—but simply an issue of “they don’t belong to us, because they’re not part of us, and so they can’t possibly be what we are, that is, Christ’s.” We don’t talk ourselves out of it, we forget as easily as if we never knew, that others besides ourselves have the Bible, believe in Jesus Christ according to what they’ve received from the apostles, and even from the first councils. We treat them, if we recognize them at all, as less than ourselves, and even as non-Christians, justifying this by saying, “we don’t know what they believe,” and, “outside the Church, the Bible is a closed book.”

What if it were true, that in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, we were joined in real communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, and with all those who ever looked to Him with faith, and followed Him, some even to the extent of dying for Him, in other words, with all saints of all times and places… and creeds, or lack of them? Whose anathema could be raised against that mighty host who lived so completely for the Lord that they did not see anything and anyone ahead of them but Him, and who followed Him wherever He went? Do we think that anything we could do, anything we could demand from them to conform to us, could keep them from the communion of the saints? Never fear, they are there, and it is we who, hoarding as our own what belongs to all, might do well to fear being cast out.

Not in contradiction, but plainly beyond the reach of all that human wisdom devises as a safeguard for the deposit of faith, the word of Jesus lays the only foundation that none can replace,

“My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;
no one can snatch them out of My hand.
My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all;
no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand.
I and the Father are one.”
John 10:27-30

I was asked

How do I evangelize?

Nothing more than just always being ready to tell people about Christ and how He has helped me, keeps me alive, and is saving me, and this not by words only, but first by actions, following my Lord, who says, "Your light must shine in the sight of men, so that seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

My strategy is just as I keep saying over and over in my blog…
"Love the people around you and serve them, but do not get caught up in their fantasies, but by clear thinking and straight action, without correcting them or trying to rule them, show them the way that is shown to you by Christ and the apostles. Just follow Jesus, and do unto others, say unto others, what you see Him doing, and hear Him saying. Nothing else."

Names

What we call something, or someone, is very important. This has been known since the dawn of mankind, everywhere, by every people. Hence, the sacredness of one’s personal name. Hence, the prohibition of the taking the Name in vain. Yes, this applies to the Name of G’d as expressed in the third of the Ten Words (Exodus 20:7), but as we have been created in the Image of Him who is, everyone knows this has something to do with our own personal names. We are patterned on Him. We are His being uttered in a different key, as we might say ‘on a smaller scale’ bringing our perceptions into it.

This is not about personal names, but about the names we give things and ideas. We little suspect how much the language we speak and the names we give things affects what we believe or think we know about them. Terminology is not a trivial science, but a pivotal one in defining and setting up our world. This is why it was an unheard of privilege for Adam the First-created to be given the task of naming—first, naming the animals and, by extension, all things that weren’t himself, and finally, even naming his helpmate, “This is to be called Woman (ishsháh), for this was taken from Man (ish)” (Genesis 2:23).

Every word that is the name of something is a loaded entity. As soon as we hear it, we usually find that our minds have already been made up. Why is this? Well, firstly because we have learned the dictionary meaning of the term. Secondly, from seeing how the word is applied in our culture and day to day lives, we also have a fluent understanding of many of its undocumented meanings. Finally, often the word has very personal meaning to ourselves: we have defined it in relation to our own being.

A good example of what I mean can be drawn from Christian terminology. Many of the words that are used in the Western world to describe things and ideas pertaining to life in the Church (for that is what being a Christian seems to mean) are drawn from Latin, and they have an immediate mental impact on those who use them. “Sacrament” is one of these. This word has a strict dictionary definition, and if it stayed there it might be a fitting word to use. Instead, it has accrued to itself meanings and connotations which have contributed to the religious sickness of Western society, both feeding into it and drawing from it, divorcing itself from its scriptural meaning. For that reason, it is best to return to the Greek term mystírion or mystery. True, “mystery” has its own set of suppositions and meanings, but it has existed in its original, scriptural meaning for two thousand years, hidden from the eyes of most Christians in the West, and as such, it can now resurface into the culture with its ancient meaning intact. It removes the idea of what it represents from the devolution that the word “sacrament” has experienced for fifteen hundred years. It returns us to the gospel, not to a religious category. And the gospel, evangélion, is not “religion,” it is “the good news.”

In a different frame of reference, one more secular but which may illustrate my point better, are the words we use to define sexuality. These are very loaded words. “Gay” versus “straight” is the common parlance of the day, with the first term infiltrating languages other than English. As soon as we hear these words, we know what they mean, and we have decided already what we think about them. They provoke no questions in us to search for truth. They simply tell us what’s what, and then proceed to categorize us to ourselves. If we hear the words, “homosexual” and “heterosexual” some of us feel like we’re on more solid ground, we feel somewhat scientific. We think we know what these words mean, what they tell us about other people and what they do, but do they really allow us a little freedom and incentive to ask questions, to try to arrive at truth? I don’t think so, for they still assume things about people that may not in fact be true. They insist that given a set of facts, another well-defined set of acts will result. Again, a false assumption. Finally, a phrase like “same sex attraction,” which seems on the surface to mean “homosexual” but actually doesn’t. This phrase doesn’t have an opposite partner in everyday speech, apparently because none is needed. This phrase is not loaded like the previous terms that seem to be its equivalents. You can use this phrase and give it the meaning of the other two, but you don’t have to. Instead, you can let it provoke questions in you, to launch your mind on a quest, for the truth. What does it mean? What does it imply? What are its conditions? What are its results? Instead of being told, as you are with the other terms, that if you “suffer” from this, you will do this, and be that, it lets you discover for yourself, apart from the dominant “culture,” what it really means. And that might be quite different. And in fact, it is.

We must be very careful in naming ourselves and others, as well as naming our conditions, objectives, principles and so on. You can call yourself a Catholic, a Protestant, or an Orthodox, but what does this mean? Is there anything you can depend on in a person who is identified as one of these? Very little, I think. Very little that really matters, anyway. We can look up the words in a dictionary, and go from there, but until we actually meet one of these self-named creatures, we won’t have a real understanding of what these words mean. Even when we do meet them, we will be utterly confused. Why? Because these are mere labels thrown over what cannot be defined that way. Isn’t this nothing more than saying the obvious, that you can’t categorize and judge people? Bingo!

Still, names are important, otherwise Adam would not have been told to start the process of naming that continues down to the present day. It’s too bad that very few names can hold on to their original meanings as well as “pick” and “shovel.” Wait a minute! pick! What did you mean by that?

Do the words we use to name people, things and ideas cause our minds to fall into a groove of thoughtless conformity and our day to day lives into equally mindless actions? Or do we use words that provoke thought, questioning, and questing for what really is true about people, things and ideas? The world that results from the first is the broken world we see around us. The world that arises from the second, well, what can I say better about it than what Aslan said to Mr. Beaver in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,

“All names will soon be restored to their proper owners. In the meantime we will not dispute about noises.”

Size doesn't matter

How ironic it is that I work for a company whose trade mark slogan is “Because size does matter.” I did not come up with that one, thank God, but the clever chap who did still loves it. Does it sell machines? Who knows, but it does raise eyebrows. We make automated measuring equipment and saw systems that help improve efficiency and lower costs.

Because size does matter? What’s that supposed to mean?
Well, you can give it any meaning you like, some will be true, others false. Yes, if you’re a cabinet-maker you want your pieces the right size. That’s what my company offers, a machine that does that. But slogans like this are of limited meaning, and in the real scheme of things, they mean practically nothing. How’s that for size?

In an odd sort of way, size is really nothing but a function of our sensibilities, our perceptions, our thoughts, which are themselves sizeless.

The universe of an ant, its dimensions, its speed of movement, its duration of time, is no smaller, no faster, and no shorter than the universe of a man. The universe of a star, if such objects have consciousness (can we say they don’t?), is no larger, no slower, no longer than the universe of a man. At every gauge or scale of physical reality, it is perception alone, the consciousness of measurement, that recognizes “size.” That’s why I’ve always thought it a nonsensical argument to say “How can you believe our tiny planet in the infinite universe so important that it alone hosts human life?” Well, why shouldn’t it? And what has that got to do with size, number or location? This point has already been better examined by C. S. Lewis than I could ever hope to do. All that I want to emphasize is that this is not a trivial and unimportant idea, but a foundational one.

Size not only doesn’t matter, but it actually is not a valid basis for gauging anything but physical characteristics. This orange is large, and the other small. But without cutting them both open and tasting them, I cannot tell which is sweet and which bitter. Perception makes all the difference.

This has wide application to human life, wider than we imagine, but we keep the notion at arm’s length, because it is so terrifying.
More terrifying than the idea that we are a small planet with sentient life forms cast adrift without provision or protection in an infinite and dangerous universe, is the idea that we are a small, populous world of spiritual beings who have a personal Creator, Owner and Judge, with whom each of us has personally to deal, and that our choices, not our sizes, matter.

Forgive me, brothers, for this ramble.
We read in the Anagignoskómena, in 1 Maccabees,

“How can we, few as we are, engage such overwhelming numbers? We are exhausted as it is, not having had anything to eat today.” “It is easy,” Judas [Maccabaeus] answered, “for a great number to be routed by a few; indeed, in the sight of heaven deliverance, whether by many or by few, is all one; for victory in war does not depend on the size of the fighting force; it is from heaven that strength comes…”
1 Maccabees 3:17-19 Jerusalem Bible
So, size doesn’t matter in the world of the acts of God, maybe only in the facts of nature, and though we appear to belong to one universe, our minds are eyes that see into another. And somewhere we’ve heard that “we will become like Him, because we will see Him as He really is.” That sure gives a new twist to the saying, “seeing is believing.” No, it doesn’t give the saying a new twist, it abolishes it altogether. There’s a new saying now. “Seeing is being.”

And that is just the beginning of another Story.

Postscript
The graphic at the beginning of this post really is quite illuminating. Click the image to enlarge it fully. Studying it over in detail with the thoughts here presented in mind does help illustrate them in a way mere words cannot. I'm not sure of the source, but it looks like a 2-page spread from a science magazine.

Men ≠ Women, Women ≠ Men

The following is quoted and very slightly adapted from the website Angry Harry. My blog is about discipleship, true, and how men and women following Jesus Christ can shed their worldly ambitions and live for the Kingdom. In many posts, I have occasionally referred to the danger that feminism poses to the Church, where it already has largely replaced biblical values with its ideology, sometimes being well-disguised by using “traditional” constructs. This will only keep happening until men and women of God have the courage to return to the ancient faith, the biblical faith, and stem the rising tide of sanctimonious apostasy. As previously stated, the following was not written by me, but by a secular thinker, yet it deserves a hearing, even though many who visit my blog will be shocked and offended that I have put it up. Common sense, honesty and clear thinking are not lacking in the world, but those who display these traits will continually be shoved aside, because they are at enmity with the world system. Like faithful Christians, they are an indigestible people. To avoid turning my blog into a battlefield, I have disabled comments for this post.

It is not possible to achieve 'equality' between things that are, fundamentally, not equal! And the hopeless quest for this impossible goal is being generated largely by extremely vindictive groups of women whose careers depend on forever stirring up hatred towards men.

Indeed, most feminists and women's groups want there to be a permanent gender war. Without such a war, they would evaporate into thin air, because there would be no reason for them to exist. Most feminists and women's groups need to maintain an inter-gender war in order to generate their support and their funding, and also to maintain their positions of power as well as their jobs. And the more power, resources and jobs that they wish to cling on to, the greater must be the inter-gender war that they need to stimulate.

Indeed, anything that undermines, or makes more insecure, the special nature of close heterosexual relationships is something that feminists will always support and encourage.

Whether it is supporting same-sex marriage (to undermine traditional marriage) getting women out to work, paying women welfare to encourage relationship break-ups, forever urging women to feel abused in some way and to prosecute their partners, unjustly high alimony payouts, demonising or mocking men, encouraging lesbianism, the aim is the same. Make it as difficult as possible for men and women to have secure relationships. Disempower men within those relationships as much as possible, and ensure that when relationships break up then the men lose out the most.

In conclusion, feminism is not about equality. It is about stirring up hatred towards men, no matter what the true situation is.

Indeed, you do not even need to read the various outpourings of the feminists in order to figure out what their views will be on any given matter. Just ask yourself this simple question: "What would my views be if I hated men and if I wanted to stir up this hatred in others?" And your answer to this question will almost certainly be consistent with what most feminists are actually saying.

Western men die some five years earlier than women. They suffer more from nearly every medical disease and ailment that there is. And yet, far more money is spent by governments on women's health than on men's health.

Men are also nowadays educationally disadvantaged significantly compared to women; with the curriculum, the teaching methods and the resources being designed to cater far more for women and girls than for men and boys.

Men make up 80% of the homeless. There are more of them in social service care-homes as boys. They are many times more likely to be wrongfully arrested, wrongfully imprisoned, mugged, assaulted or murdered. They are 5 times more likely to lose their children when families break down, 4 times more likely to lose their homes, 4 times more likely to commit suicide, 20 times more likely to be killed or injured at work, 20 times more likely to be imprisoned, and, probably, more than 100 times more likely to be demeaned, denigrated and ridiculed by the mainstream media.

Men also pay much more in taxes than women but receive far less in benefits from the government. In other words, when compared to women, men are significantly disadvantaged when it comes to their health, their lifespans, their homes, their children, their education, their families, the tax burden, the law, the benefit system, and even when it comes to their own personal safety. They are nowadays also being heavily discriminated against in the work place.

And lastly, governments love feminism because they can make billions of dollars every year by promoting this destructive ideology. The main reason that governments and their workers support feminism and its man-hating agenda so strongly has got nothing to do with equality, justice, peace and harmony etc.; it is to do with money, power, status, jobs and pensions for themselves.

Yes, we hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…

Except for Jesus

I can no longer condemn or hate other Christians for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble they cause me. In intercessory prayer the face that may have been strange and intolerable to me is transformed into the face of one for whom Christ died, the face of a pardoned sinner.

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together

This is of course very true, that if and as we pray, intercede, for others, we cannot condemn or hate them. I wish I could say that this is a general truth in general practice, but it is not. By and large the Church of today does not pray, even when it goes through the motions formally in liturgies and litanies, even when it gathers in little clutches of ‘Spirit-filled’ prayer. No matter where you go in Christianity today, real prayer is at a bare minimum, carried on probably more in private, in ones, twos and threes, perhaps a few more, but still pitifully thin. So should it surprise us that the churches are in the state they're in?

Bonhoeffer says, “A Christian community either lives by the intercessory prayers of its members for one another, or the community will be destroyed” (ibid.). This is rather strong language, but is it true? I think it is. What we see around us is in fact destroyed Christian communities. Notice he didn’t say, ‘annihilated’ but ‘destroyed.’ I would be interested to know whether the word he used was zerstört (German, utterly destroyed) or some other expression.

Coming from America's greatest poet, quoted on the 4th of July in my blog, “no man has ever yet been half devout enough; none has ever yet adored or worship’d half enough,” and these words coming from a man who was certainly not a mainstream Christian, if he was a Christian at all. Yet, I agree with him, adding, “no man has ever yet prayed enough, interceded enough,” and I can say that with only one objective piece of evidence—myself.

I don't know what else to say. I try to pray without ceasing. I even pray while I am consciously sinning, if you can call that prayer. Yet, even my standing before God as I am in complete confession of my sinful state, trusting in His mercy and grace alone to save me from myself, I know that the greater sin is my inability or lack of dedication to pray, asking for the needs of the brethren. I hold up the lives of those I love, but rarely those I hate, or am indifferent to. And my prayer to Him, to help me to pray better, to intercede more manfully, seems to me to be pure hypocrisy.

In the end, I can only say, “Lord, let it be unto me according to Your will, not according to my deeds, for I am pitiful, blind and lost, except for Jesus.”

Love is action

"A cheerful giver is much more precious than the gifts he can give, however much it is. The joy of giving it can 'turn the water into wine' of love which is born from the act of compassion."

The above is a short quote, one of my favorite lines, from the blog Heartbeat, by brother Yudi Kristanto, a student at UPH in Tangerang, Java, Indonesia. Read his entire post.
I guarantee you will be blessed.
Here is the link.

The spirit of correction

The appearance of virtue, of correctness, likes to express itself in an ironic tone, but very piously and politely. True virtue, when it is expressed at all, is either very subtle, almost invisible, or else so bold and direct, that it is accused of being uncharitable and demanding, but never of being polite.

There is a kind of spirit of correction in people, one that won’t let well enough alone, but must always be on the lookout for defects in others to be corrected. Even when they are forced to agree with someone in the main, or worse yet, offer a bit of praise or appreciation, they must cloud it with a corrective rejoinder. They must be righter, so you can know you’re wronger.

It’s right to speak up sometimes, when we must, to point out something that must be corrected to save ourselves or others from danger, from injustice, from waste, even from bad habits. Internally, the Christian is practicing a kind of vigilance of soul in his internal economy, to keep his behavior in line with the gospel. Externally, though, his sights are set higher than the tops of others’ heads, not seeing their personal defects, but the Lord who is setting them on their feet. This is how it is supposed to be, but rarely is. Instead, the Christian is often a zealous vigilante, armed with a good dose of the spirit of correction, eager to hop on anything another says or does, with a view to set him straight. “I’m righter than you are. You’re wronger than me. I must save you from yourself.”

This is why before I became a Christian, I avoided them, and why, now that I am one, I still avoid them.

What do I mean by that? Well, whenever I meet anyone, I assume the best. After all, they are Christ coming to me, and I am Christ coming to them. This is the simple gospel rule that I follow. All is well until we find out that we are Christians, or that I am. If the new acquaintance is a non-Christian, they are either comfortable with me because their reason guards them, or they are very uncomfortable with me and avoid me then and there, because they follow rumor, they allow no chance of themselves being mauled.

If the acquaintance is a Christian, I try to fellowship with them. Almost always this quickly resolves itself into scenarios where I must defend myself constantly from correction, or else quietly take it, and then the attempt to fellowship on my part quiets down, because I have pierced through their curtain, and they know it.

Christ says to us, “Love one another as I have loved you,” and not “Correct one another.”

Appreciate the good that people are, say and do, really appreciate it, appreciate them. Encourage them. Confirm them in their good efforts and achievements. Learn to accept praise without falsely deflecting it by verbal expressions of piety or humility. God knows us through and through. He knows if we’re humble or not, and that’s what is important, not the impression we make on others. If you feel the need to correct your neighbor, first take a deep breath and stand back from the situation. Do you want to really help, or are you just intent on dampening their spirit? Do you really love them, or do you love correction?

Which spirit is in you, the Holy Spirit, or the other one?

It costs so little

I recently started recording myself reading the Greek New Testament aloud, and posting the recordings on a new blog,
Η Καινή Διαθήκη.

The recordings are short, one chapter each. I didn’t want to tire anyone out.
So far I have the Revelation and the Gospel, both of St John, recorded.
I know there are some mistakes here and there in my pronunciation or diction. I try to read the text with meaning, but I sometimes fail. I actually get tired a little, when I am reading aloud for a couple of hours, and the connexion between eyes, mind and voice sometimes falters. I will re-record some of them, as I listen to them and discover which ones need a retake. Since I read the scriptures aloud in the original languages anyway, one day I thought, why not record them and put them online for the benefit of others? And that’s what I am doing. To my knowledge, there are no online audio files of the original Greek New Testament, just the modern Greek translation.

Some people have thanked me and wondered at the effort I am taking, as if it were something extraordinary, when actually it isn’t. I “sacrificed” one morning of free time on a weekend to read and record Revelation. For the Gospel, I “sacrificed” a few hours on two days during the same long weekend. I write sacrificed in quotes because it was anything but a sacrifice. There’s nothing I would’ve preferred to do than read the scriptures aloud. A Greek woman at my church laughed at me one day and called out to her friends sitting at a nearby table having coffee after liturgy, “Romanós reads the Greek bible to relax! He says it’s fun!” I laughed along with them.

The truth is, there is so much we can do to build up the Body of Christ, the Church, and it takes so little effort, so little organization, so little cost. The institutional church, when it wants to do a ‘good work’ or a ‘ministry’ or whatever it calls it, expends so much time, energy and even money just setting up for it. Yet, after all is said and done, and they’ve finished thanking and congratulating each other, what was really accomplished, really now, not just in appearance? Sometimes a lot, yes, but often, precious little, and I do mean precious. Why? Because time, money and talent, as they call these three commodities, are “precious” to those who actually think they own them.

The truth, however, is much different. We actually own nothing, not our time, not our talent, not even our money. Mother Gavrilía Papayanni used to say, “There is nothing cheaper than money.” I’ve often wondered what she meant by that, but I’m guessing she meant that giving money to causes (to make ourselves feel better) is the easiest and least costly way to “help” others. Back to the facts, we own none of these things. All that we have and all that we are is pure gift from above, from the Father, and so it’s really quite ridiculous to act as though we are doing anything extraordinary when we expend these on others rather than ourselves.

The time it takes me to read scriptures aloud for myself or for others, that time is the Lord’s. That expense is to His account. It costs me nothing. Even if I forget myself, and fall into thinking that I own what’s in my pocketbook, still it costs so little to do so much for someone else, so why not just do it? Sometimes it’s money, but usually it is simply a kind word, a sincere eye to eye look, a smile, even a silly joke or small talk to someone who, if not for you, would be locked in the prison of their own cares. It costs so little for us to liberate our neighbor from that, and sometimes, it even liberates us!

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:8 NIV

Μηδενι μηδεν οφειλετε ει μη το αγαπαν αλληλους ο γαρ αγαπων τον ετερον νομον πεπληρωκεν

He bent the heavens and came down… Psalm 18:9

All my thoughts, even the best, are incinerated to ash when I read such words as these, conceived in the heart of the Son, where in the infinite and living φως (phos), theology and poetry are indivisibly united in hypostatic fusion…

A: If our world had been formed and filled by some lesser god, I think he would have made the vast mistake of laboring with too straight a back.

His steely arrowed finger would stab the depths, jolting them to fertility. Then he’d raise his dripping arm, and glaring across the sudden plains, he’d loose a lightning lash of life.

Oh, I have some idea in what anguished, reaching pillars such a god would have cased our world. What scars of insistence would run through its nature; how straight, how measured, how devised a place it would be, where nothing arched or swept or curled, where nothing warbled when it sang!

B: Leave aside these imagined gods, sweet heart.

Here on earth the scars are all our own. Here we had a God, God enough to bend. He leaned, he stooped; beneath his brooding heart the very heaven curved into a dome.

Bow down and make with your form the sweet shape that pleased him.

A: Everywhere I walk on earth, I see the imprint of the Spirit’s sweeping courtesy.

Swimming heavens arch above my head; the swan’s neck is the gracefullest; ungainly forms of mothers in their hour find strength to curl and bend.

B: Yes, and I too was bowed in my hour.

A: Ah, gentle sir, just yesterday I saw a living image of yourself humbly draped in blue. I heard him say, “Joanna, servant of God…” while he leaned over a woman grown a child.

All his children, fifty or more, clustered around him in muted merriment. He fed their mouths like a mother bird. Behind, above him, the walls brooded in gold and colors and sober faces. They all inclined and cherished the little human family.

I knew it for the shape of the Universe. And if I ever needed proof…

B: Hush, dear, hush; don’t speak of proof. I have better things for you.

…now, let me stand back and watch the scene again, and hushed, listen to the words. Here is Wisdom speaking, as She speaks in the Word. And as the Word lives and lives on and on, heaven on earth shall never lack a witness. And for that, in joy, I sincerely weep.

The original text of the above, by Alana Roberts, can be read here.

Incense of pure testimony

We are Christ's incense to God for those who are being saved and for those who are not; for the last, the smell of death that leads to death, for the first the sweet smell of life that leads to life.

2 Corinthians 2:15 Jerusalem Bible

Οτι Χριστου ευωδια εσμεν τω θεω εν τοις σωζομενοις και εν τοις απολλυμενοις, οις μεν οσμη εκ θανατου εις θανατον, οις δε οσμη εκ ζωης εις ζωην. και προς ταυτα τις ικανος

When our testimony is pure, that is, when we testify only to the Word of God (both Jesus, and the scriptures that are His written ikon) as it is, nothing added or taken away (by us), nothing twisted, then for those destined to be saved (or saved already) we are the perfume of life, and for those destined to be lost (through their rejection of God) we are the stench of death.

But what happens if we adulterate our testimony to the Word, if we mix it with human reasoning, political correctness, or just the desire to please others (instead of God) in a (vain) attempt to win them over "by hook or by crook"?

We try to cover up the stench of death by using a kind of spiritual air freshener. We don't let the lost really get a whiff of their ultimate end, what they will turn into because their deeds are sinful and they hate God for showing them this. Instead, we "there, there" them into the Kingdom, or try to, soothing not their wounds and healing them, but humoring and abetting them in their sins, making light of them, and deceiving them on earth into a false hope, hiding from them what they really have chosen.

The testimony that we bear to the world must be pure, or else it is worthless and more than worthless, dangerous.

The peace of Christ

Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
The Blood of Jesus whispers peace within.
—Edward Henry Bickersteth

Hymn writer

Peace, that which comes from above and is granted by God alone through Christ is not easy to define, but it definitely does NOT mean something like "all's well" or "peace and quiet" in the usual sense. Peace from God does not necessarily mean that there is no trouble anywhere in our life, nor that we are not faced with problems to which we cannot find a solution.

It's easier to talk about this peace that comes from God through Christ and is bestowed on us in prayer than it is to actually have it. Why? Because we usually talk about it when we are NOT in any great distress, emergency or need, but after we have been delivered from it. We look back in retrospect and thank God for the deliverance and find words of testimony to give about God's faithfulness.

What is the best definition of and the most convincing testimony to the "peace from above"?

When we are presently in distress, in danger, at risk, beset with problems we see no end of, when we are suffering persecutions, slander, unjust accusations, when no one believes us, when no one cares about us, and we are not sad, not unhappy, not anxious, not disturbed, not reproachful, uncomplaining, unmoved to anger or revenge, still hopeful, still forgiving, still loving our enemies, still seeking God’s Kingdom first and His righteousness, never giving in to despair or abandonment. When we are in this place, and can define "the peace of God which passeth all understanding" not only by the word of our confession, but also by our passionlessness, then we have understood and accepted what that peace is. It's the same peace that Jesus knew when He was crucified and when He uttered with His last breath, "It is finished. Into your hands I commend my spirit." It is the same peace which Jesus gave to His disciples when He said, "My peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give."

This is the peace of Christ.

The star-spangled banner

O say, can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?—
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines in the stream;
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, "In God is our trust";
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

— Francis Scott Key

Inscribed on the base of the statue of Liberty

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

— Emma Lazarus, 1883

Leaves of Grass
Starting from Paumanok

6

The soul,
Forever and forever—longer than soil is brown and solid—longer than water ebbs and flows.

I will make the poems of materials, for I think they are to be the most spiritual poems;
And I will make the poems of my body and of mortality,
For I think I shall then supply myself with the poems of my Soul, and of immortality.

I will make a song for These States, that no-one State may under any circumstances be subjected to another State;
And I will make a song that there shall be comity by day and by night between all The States, and between any two of them:
And I will make a song for the ears of the President, full of weapons with menacing points,
And behind the weapons countless dissatisfied faces:
—And a song make I, of the One form’d out of all;
The fang’d and glittering One whose head is over all;
Resolute, warlike One, including and over all;
(However high the head of any else, that head is over all.)

I will acknowledge contemporary lands;
I will trail the whole geography of the globe, and salute courteously every city large and small;
And employments! I will put in my poems, that with you is heroism, upon land and sea;
And I will report all heroism from an American point of view.

I will sing the song of companionship;
I will show what alone must finally compact These;
I believe These are to found their own ideal of manly love, indicating it in me;
I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were threatening to consume me;
I will lift what has too long kept down those smouldering fires;
I will give them complete abandonment;
I will write the evangel-poem of comrades, and of love;
For who but I should understand love, with all its sorrow and joy?
And who but I should be the poet of comrades?

7

I am the credulous man of qualities, ages, races;
I advance from the people in their own spirit;
Here is what sings unrestricted faith.

Omnes! Omnes! let others ignore what they may;
I make the poem of evil also—I commemorate that part also;
I am myself just as much evil as good, and my nation is—And I say there is in fact no evil;
(Or if there is, I say it is just as important to you, to the land, or to me, as anything else.)

I too, following many, and follow’d by many, inaugurate a Religion—I descend into the arena;
(It may be I am destin’d to utter the loudest cries there, the winner’s pealing shouts;
Who knows? they may rise from me yet, and soar above every thing.)

Each is not for its own sake;
I say the whole earth, and all the stars in the sky, are for Religion’s sake.

I say no man has ever yet been half devout enough;
None has ever yet adored or worship’d half enough;
None has begun to think how divine he himself is, and how certain the future is.

I say that the real and permanent grandeur of These States must be their Religion;
Otherwise there is no real and permanent grandeur:
(Nor character, nor life worthy the name, without Religion;
Nor land, nor man or woman, without Religion.)

8

What are you doing, young man?
Are you so earnest—so given up to literature, science, art, amours?
These ostensible realities, politics, points?
Your ambition or business, whatever it may be?

It is well—Against such I say not a word—I am their poet also;
But behold! such swiftly subside—burnt up for Religion’s sake;
For not all matter is fuel to heat, impalpable flame, the essential life of the earth,
Any more than such are to Religion.

9

What do you seek, so pensive and silent?
What do you need, camerado?
Dear son! do you think it is love?

Listen, dear son—listen, America, daughter or son!
It is a painful thing to love a man or woman to excess—and yet it satisfies—it is great;
But there is something else very great—it makes the whole coincide;
It, magnificent, beyond materials, with continuous hands, sweeps and provides for all.

10

Know you, solely to drop in the earth the germs of a greater Religion,
The following chants, each for its kind, I sing.

My comrade!
For you, to share with me, two greatnesses—and a third one, rising inclusive and more resplendent,
The greatness of Love and Democracy, and the greatness of Religion.

Melange mine own! the unseen and the seen;
Mysterious ocean where the streams empty;
Prophetic spirit of materials shifting and flickering around me;
Living beings, identities, now doubtless near us, in the air, that we know not of;
Contact daily and hourly that will not release me;
These selecting—these, in hints, demanded of me.

Not he, with a daily kiss, onward from childhood kissing me,
Has winded and twisted around me that which holds me to him,
Any more than I am held to the heavens, to the spiritual world,
After what they have done to me, suggesting themes.

O such themes! Equalities! O divine average!
Warblings under the sun, usher’d as now, or at noon, or setting,
Strains musical flowing through ages, now reaching hither,
I take to your reckless and composite chords, add to them, and cheerfully pass them forward.

— Walt Whitman

Αποκάλυψις Ιωάννου - Revelation

After much delay I have spent this morning finally recording the entire text of the book of Revelation in the Greek New Testament. Reading the Αποκάλυψις Ιωάννου in Greek aloud is a discipline that I've had for several years. It's a regular part of my spiritual life. Lately, due to some health issues and other challenges, I have not been able to do this reading, for myself or for others, or to record it, for several months. My life is returning to a more regular rhythm, and so I hope to continue my Greek New Testament blog, Η Καινή Διαθήκη, adding next the Gospel according to John, then his letters, then the Gospel according to Mark, then the letter to the Hebrews, and so on.

I originally planned to do this to help my Greek students (I read Greek as a private coach), but I think it may be a valuable resource online for anyone who wants to listen to, or study and learn with living (not theoretical) Greek pronunciation, the New Testament in the original language.

Not only the Greek, but also the Hebrew, originals of the holy scriptures are what I promote. I am an "original languages bible man," although most Christians can't make much sense out of this. For my reasons, read Greek, why bother? and its prequel Hebrew, why bother? And then just look for the Greek and Hebrew scriptures scattered throughout this blog.

The bottom line for me is, to enter as fully as possible into the apostolic and prophetic mind, I must think the thoughts of the apostles and the prophets as they thought them, in their idiom. I must hear their voices speaking. This is, perhaps, a function of the call of Christ on one's life, and so I offer this work with humility, knowing it is just a start.

To hear a sample of my reading, go to Αποκάλυψις Ιωάννου - Revelation, and click on any of the 22 chapters of this closing book of the bible.

To assure yourself that I am not going to start lecturing you or anyone on what this book of the bible means, read my post,
A ramble on Revelation.

Finally, I try not to toot my own horn too often, but because my Greek New Testament blog had almost withered on the vine, I wanted to bring it to my readers' attention just one more time.

The magic of existence

Some people talk as though it were totally barbaric and unworthy of Him that God should have created a world in which such a thing as sin exists, that has so corrupted His chief creation, Man, that He now must punish him with eternal torment in fire, unless he accept the bloody death of a unique Man, who is also somehow His only-begotten Son, who sacrificed Himself voluntarily to satisfy the requirement of His angry heavenly Father, whose Law demands blood to compensate for its violation, as a ransom for his sins, so that he can be regenerated in sinlessness as his first forefather Adam was originally created.

This is like saying that
God created a good universe
into which His chief creature, Man, was placed
with the expectation that he would always be of one will with Him,
while at the same time allowing an evil agent into it,
which He knew would corrupt Man’s will,
and then forcing Himself to eternally punish this Man
and all his descendents from their very births
to eternal damnation for breaking a Law
which He established and to which He is now bound,
when He could have either not created that Law at all,
or else overridden it for Man’s sake,
or else not allowed the evil agent to deceive Man
and cause the sin that must now be avenged,
since God is holy
and cannot tolerate sin.

Well, what would you have?
A good God who created a good universe
into which He placed a good creature, Man,
who sometimes acts against what he knows intuitively is right
by a standard he didn’t create
but which the good God did,
whose Son also entered that good universe
and somehow was accidentally put to death
but was rescued and resuscitated somehow,
so that His teachings could be learned and followed,
restoring Man,
if not to his originally perfect and righteous state,
at least to a state in which his moral failures
are somewhat in control,
allowing most men to live together in relative peace and safety
and to enjoy a reasonable level of freedom and happiness?
Religion.

That would be nice!
That is how Man would like it.
That is how Man in his natural state would like to see existence
and give it meaning.

That is how a civilised and worthy God
would have set things up,
that is, if He exists.

Let’s have none of this sacrificial talk!
Away with the barbaric demand for blood by an angry God,
who is unfit to be called Father
if He has to send His only Son
to a humiliating, bloody, excruciatingly painful death,
to save His creatures from a sinfulness
He almost willed them to have,
to save them from an eternal and fiery torment
that He imposes on all who reject His love.

His love?
Would a loving God have such a plan?
Would He create beings only to torture them
for not being His robot slaves?

With all due respect to those
who try to prove God
loving, righteous, rational, and worthy of our praise
by departing from the words
of holy and divine scripture
to paint a picture of Him
in colors that are pleasing to our sense
and standard of right and wrong,
of what we call love, and mercy,
and what we would honor as holy

—I know what they are trying to do,
to make God lovable
so that we will love Him and believe in Him—

This strategy in the end
does not produce the effect in us
that the Word of God was revealed to produce,
does not raise us out of our mortal, human reason
to immortal, divine faith,
does not deliver us from death and bring us to true life,
does not equip us for and acculturate us
to what we can only call
—because it is just the other side of our ontological “event horizon”
and we cannot express it any other way—
life eternal.

The real universe,
not the one that scientists explore,
test, measure and define by human standards,
not the one that sociologists and historians archive
and try to understand,
not the one that moralists and would-be theologians
devise as a frame of reference
to interpret the results of the studies
of the other two groups,

but the real universe
—what really exists,
what really operates and animates
all that we can see, hear, touch, taste, smell, feel
and philosophize—
is so beyond our human capacities
as to be conveyable to us
only in what seems miraculous or magical,
or else so out of sync with what we should have expected
that it seems barbaric and primitive in the extreme.

Not that real universe,
but its Creator,
has told us about that existence
which lies just beyond our human nature’s “event horizon”
by taking up a literature as the vehicle of His Word,
and that is what we call the Holy Bible.

Why holy?
Because it is, like Him, totally other,
fully incomprehensible to those
who would fit it into the container of their minds alone.

The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not grasped it.

The Bible teaches us,
as a mother teaches her toddler using baby talk,
how to take the first steps into that real universe
where there is no other map that we can yet read,
where there are features
that could harm or even destroy us
in our present state of being and level of maturity
if we met them without warning.

We must listen very carefully,
mimic and memorize the instructions
just as we receive them,
even in the limited language that we know thus far,

because for us,
where we are headed,
where we have no choice but to be headed,
is a state that now can only seem to be
the magic of existence.

It will only be magic
until we find out and understand what lies behind it,
until we find ourselves actually and even factually
crossing that “event horizon”
that limits our mortal, human vision,
until by faith we come to
immortal,
divine being.
Théosis.

But I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to myself.
John 12:32 NIV